[PB69] Naufragar turns over a new leaf. Randomly.

[Mjmd]

Where is the settler headed?

[naufragar]

The most recent pic I have of the area is from t49:


We're going to settle 1S of the sheep. this isn't a great direction to settle in, but the spot I have in mind towards Commodore is very slow and I don't have the military to feel comfortable settling near Ginger yet.

This spot makes excellent use of Stonehenge. We get to grab horses and deer, while settling on the coast. Speaking of coast, my warrior will step onto that flat grassland the turn before we settle to make sure we're not orphaning fish or, worse, settling in a way that makes us unable to cross the southern sea in galleys.

More than safety, this spot is probably the reason that we can't run Serfdom as soon as we get it. This spot wants to whip a ton. Our two other cities can work plains mines.

[Amicalola]

Oracle without quarry makes Amicalola a sad panda.

[naufragar]

Oracle without quarry makes Amicalola a sad panda.

I am sorry. No panda should ever be sad. We sacrifice a lot for our Oracle (as evidenced by Ginger starting the 4-cities club the turn we found our 3rd  ). But a quarry would take 1 turn of movement, 6 turns for the quarry proper, and then 2 more turns for the road for a total of 9 turns for a savings of 50 hammers, when I could just have 1 worker chop 2 forests over 8 turns for 40 hammers. And that's leaving aside actually researching Masonry. And after all, the whole point of grabbing Oracle is that tech is going to be hard to come by.

I worry about Gavagai. He's still on 2 cities and he's Industrious, so he could be racing me for it. I honestly don't expect to lose, so it would be quite a shock.

I mentioned I just settled my 3rd city. I actually forgot to take a pic of it, so I logged back in and I'm glad I did:


Uh...why is Magic continually by my borders? His scout's been hugging my east. This warrior has been a tile or two away for like 7 turns. I don't get it. I swapped Ankh-Morpork to a spear. It can finish on its own production before the warrior becomes a hassle, but I had really wanted the city to produce another worker. Quite annoyed at Magic. 

Anyway, here's the city:


Now we just pray that that peak is the start of an archipelago.

I'm pretty sure that archer can enter borders now. I, uh, just have to hope he doesn't? 

[naufragar]

I'm pretty sure that archer can enter borders now. I, uh, just have to hope he doesn't? 

Still hoping.


If the Archer moves to attack our warrior, we've got ~38% odds to lose the city. That's a massive gamble I probably shouldn't have made... Well, nothing for it. We can't reinforce in time.

We've got more security in our north, and good thing too:


Magic has himself a Chariot. This surprised me because I'm only 2k soldier points off of top power and I've just got a couple of warriors. Wonder what in the world Magic has besides what I see on this screen. I'm guess literally nothing??? I'm not worried but I am alert, let's say. (By the way, lovely land by Magic. The only riverside grasslands I've seen on the entire map, plus gold, plus a 5 food tile? Gorgeous.)

Speaking of alert:


Somebody researched Masonry. Gav is still on two cities. Is he going to make Amica a happy panda? It's a truism that prepared players can 1-turn the Oracle the turn they research Priesthood. If that's true, we're in jeopardy, but not panicking just yet.

Speaking further about alertness, Ginger switched his EP off me. Far too late for me to get Magic and Comm's graphs when they get mine, so damage done. Well played. I'll see you in hell.

[naufragar]

What???


Magic offered a ceasefire immediately.

I'm so confused. He just murdered my scout with his chariot...why? Was he worried it was going to step on a resource tile or interfere with a settler? But he already had the chariot, so my scout couldn't do anything annoying. Is he trying to send an army down my way and the scout would spot it? But I've got extensive cultural vision (and highest power). Did he really want that second promotion on his chariot? Were 3 great general points so important?  I'm less worried than I am confused. I don't see the point to this. It certainly moves Ginger out of top spot in my Axe Rush list, for sure.

Because we only have a ceasefire, this scout could aggressively trespass:


I don't think there's any point to that, but I didn't think there was any point to murdering my own scout. Maybe I'll have more insightful commentary when I let this sit with me. For now, just very confused.

Oh, and we have to go -1f for a turn at the cap to finish Oracle this turn. Coinflip odds at worst.

[naufragar]

Spent 45 minutes on this turn, mostly just staring into space. The good news:



The bad news:


I swapped to Serfdom. I'm defenseless and unable to whip emergency defenders until t63.

I spent a looooong time thinking about this. But not long enough. Still not sure. There are two immediate large disadvantages:


The settler for our 4th city doesn't get whipped, so we're very slow to expand. Pretty much everyone will beat us to a 4th city.

Second disadvantage: We can't whip a defensive unit down in Necromunda.


If the Archer shows back up on the very next turn, I have to sacrifice the worker to chop an axe in time, which would be absolutely terrible. But if the archer waits even 1 turn, we should be able to chop the axe in time. Of course, this means we delay Necromunda's granary, but I think I can live with that.

I was really torn between keeping Slavery and swapping to Serfdom. The preponderance of forests around my start, my need for improvements, and my lack of workers swayed me. But boy am I holding my breath for the next 5 turns. I could've made the wrong choice. I'm sure the lurkers know best.

[naufragar]

After turning their EP off me for long enough for me to get Commodore's graphs, Gingerlito are again throwing their entire spy network at me. This made me feel much better about settling a city that'll show up on their diplo screens with the dreaded "(liberate)" tag.



It's not on a hill, but my power is much higher than my neighbors and I can get walls.

Speaking of walls, 3 other players have Masonry and 3 have Polytheism. Masonry makes sense. Some will want to imitate Amica and grab the Lighthouse. Others will want the Pyramids. Why on earth are so many people grabbing Polytheism? 

I really need some cottages now. I've run through my accumulated hut gold. 

[naufragar]

Spent almost an hour in turn.  Too much thinking.

Here's why:


My next settler is born in 3 turns. I had planned on settling him by this copper as my anti-Magic city. But then I stopped to think about it. The only thing that city would do would be to contribute about 10 hammers per turn at size 2 (which is a lot!) which would just go into military to hold the front against Magic. Old naufragar would've plopped that city down without thinking about it. New naufragar is trying to be more conflict-averse. We'll try to develop our own territory before squaring off against neighbors.

Part of the reason I still wanted to settle is to claim the copper and a peak against Magic. It'll be hard to take over those tiles once Magic's got his culture into them. That gold will give Magic +7gpt. My 0% research rate is +12gpt. That 1 tile would increase my savings by 60%! That gold plus his Protective trait will power MS's research for a long time. All that said, we're still going to let him live. Kinder, gentler naufragar is being given a shot. We'll see if he's punished for his kinder, gentler ways.

Magic is a very erratic neighbor. He randomly declared war on Commodore and offered a ceasefire. (Comm accepted while I was in the turn.) So...I guess Magic really wants to unlock the Heroic Epic early?  Hopefully this creates an opening for Comm and me to ally against him. I worry with Magic acting so chaotically that I'll open up a turn to an ancient era stack waddling through the forested hills. I've got top power. I could beat it, but it would slow me down.

Here's the empire:


Serfdom is making me do all sorts of weird head-scratching things. I had thought that I would be swimming in worker turns with the improvement speed bonus, but the reality is that when in Slavery, I can just whip off unimproved tiles. Here I have to improve more because we're growing.

We're also very short on granaries. The theory is that in Slavery you grow more, so I can afford to wait a bit. But it's still hella sketchy to be at 0 granaries on t66. 

Ankh-Morpork is slow building a settler. This is another weird choice. As I learned almost instantly, settlers suck to build in Serfdom. Oh well. We've got high power. We should be good. Innistrad has 3 workers all in its BFC, but infuriatingly we're 1 turn too short to build a pop1 granary. Shame. This city is going to be a test of early Serfdom. Once the granary's up, we just grow onto farms. Should be pretty nice, honestly.

Looking at the big picture, Hereditary Rule is good, but hilariously, we're more health-constrained than happy-limited. With a granary and all our resources hooked, we have enough health for size 8 cities. That's just garbage. Our land is so dry and none of our cities have fresh water connections. All the same, this is some poor, poor land we've got.

[Charriu]

Two general tips when it comes to serfdom.

1. Roads are not faster to build under serfdom
2. Make sure you do all your worker turns when leaving serfdom.